The Art of the Wedding Invitation – Guest Post by Sarah at Papier Press

August 17, 2012

As a self-confessed letterpress fanatic, I am very excited to introduce today’s guest post by Sarah from Papier Press, a new Irish wedding stationer. Sarah wades through some of the finer considerations and implications of choosing your stationery, and as well as that we get to feast our eyes upon some of Papier Press’s gorgeous range. It’s a tough choice between luxurious letterpress or quirky and bespoke. Decisions, decisions…

For many couples a wedding invitation is a small detail, for others it’s a well-considered and researched decision and for the stationery enthusiasts it can become a full year long obsession! No matter which category you fall into, here are a few things to consider.

At its most fundamental level, your invitation serves the simple purpose of inviting your guests and letting them know the essential details of your upcoming wedding. At a more subconscious level however the style, design, look and feel of the invitation subtly communicates a number of messages about your wedding day. The language often hints to the formality of the wedding ceremony; it tells ladies whether this is a “hats only” event or more a relaxed garden party. It subtly tells Cousin Jim that he really does or doesn’t need to wear a tie!

Your wedding invitations are a great opportunity to create a great talking point and excitement about your big day. When choosing your invitations, put colour coordination momentarily to the side and instead focus on the design, look and feel of the invitation. A good invitation should feel like it fits your wedding day and sums up your wedding style. In fact, many couples now ask their photographer to include pictures of their wedding stationery as part of their wedding photography.

For couples seeking luxurious romantic invitations, letterpress is an obvious choice. Using a centuries old printing technique means that each invitation is individually hand printed, using a specially cast printing plate to give you a unique quality. However, whether you choose letterpress, digitally printed, or print at home invitations you can create a truly special invitation by investing some time and effort in your search and by being creative in your choice of paper stock, ink colours, text and coloured envelopes or by adding creative touches such as twine, ribbon, or a handwritten map. The key is that your final invitation should look and feel personal and again, should sum up your wedding day.

One good piece of advice is to begin shopping early for your invitations. If you’re planning a destination wedding it’s a good idea to provide a Save the Date around six months to a year in advance of your wedding date. For home weddings with a lot of overseas guests, a Save the Date or early invitation will be much appreciated. For more local weddings however, sending your invitations seven to eight weeks in advance of the wedding is still in good time, making sure to include addressed RSVP cards and stamped return addressed envelopes if possible. This approach is guaranteed to give you a much more efficient response time and after all the planning it’s so so great to have heard back from the majority of your guests in the first week. Of course, there are no hard and fast rules about invitation times, however I believe that for local weddings any earlier than eight weeks allows guests to put your wedding to the back of their minds whereas that little bit nearer the time is a bit more exciting, and means a shorter “run in” for your guests.

Do be sure to allow guests a minimum two weeks to respond to their invite from the date they will receive it as opposed to the date you send it. And even if you are dying to hear back from guests, resist the temptation to contact them re their attendance prior to the RSVP date having passed. And do grit your teeth and allow a few days grace for those well meaning relatives who are definitely coming but just haven’t made it to the post office yet!